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11am will be just as great as any other day especially if that day is special to you.

I would suggest NOT the gazebo, it is busy in that area during the daytime hours, there will swimmers behind you and the swim up bar in right behind you too....so I suggest NOT doing the Gazebo, did it ON THE BEACH..

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We are scheduled to get married on the beach at 6pm. It is just us and 2 other couples. We have a cocktail hour afterwards. Hair appt for the bride is currently 3pm.

The question is pictures. Currently we are scheduled for pictures after the ceremony. The pros are obviously it is prime light for shooting, we don't have to be concerned about the dress getting dirty when we use the abandoned hacienda type place down the beach etc etc.

The cons are we will miss the cocktail hour with our guests, leaving them to entertain themselves, while waiting for us to return. They'll probably get hungry because we aren't eating until after the pictures...

We are considering getting pictures taken before the ceremony which means moving the hair and make up to an earlier time. What are your thoughts..?

Next, we are renting the sound system for an hour. We would like to have some music play while the guests are waiting for it to begin, and some music as she walks up to the podium area. But then if the ceremony takes 20 minutes this is 20 minutes we won't have towards the cocktail hr afterwards...any suggestions or insights?

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I was hoping you guys could offer your advice on the cheapest way to book Secrets Maroma Beach. We got a travel agent in Canada who looked up packages for us with the Airlines (hotel and flight included) and it looks like she found a great deal for a week stay. However, the price still came back to high for some of our guests (immediate family who we want to accommodate so they can attend) so right now Secrets is out. I am racking my brain trying to think of a way to get everything cheaper for them since I LOVE the resort. What is the best way you found to get a great deal for Secrets for your flights and accommodations for the wedding? Booking flight and hotel separate? Packages? It is hard because a year out things as it is still so pricey! Someone suggested they come for less than a week, but when we got a quote it was very close in price since we lost the â€˜week package dealâ€™ with the airline so it made no sense! Any advice?

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Our guests are only staying for 3 days and our agent got a group land rate through the resort. Each guest is then booking their airfare separately, but we have guests flying in from all over the country. Originally because we booked more than a year out we were given the standard rate, we're getting married November 2011 and we reserved a block of rooms October 2010. However the travel agent said she would periodically check for the special rates and sure enough in March she contacted us to say the land rate had gone down by about $75.00 per person per night and she had locked all our guests in at the lower rate. If you're expecting a large group the good thing about doing a group rate is that for every 5 rooms with double occupancy booked you get the 6th room free. You can then choose to give that room to a family member or redistribute the cost of that room to the rest of the group. If you distribute it to the group this ultimately would mean an addtional 10% or so discount for each person, depending on the actual number of rooms you book.

We did not try to price out booking a separate package including airfare for each guest just because it was turning into a logistical nightmare and this was the easiest way to do it. Some of our guests were just not financially ready to pay for the entire flight once they became available which would be required in booking a package deal. So we advised our guests if they would like to stay longer than the block of rooms we reserved they could meet with our travel agent separate to hash out the details.

If you're more than a year out in your planning like we were, it will be very difficult to estimate flight packages it seems too since my understanding was that flights only become available within 11 months of the current date. We tried to use 11/2010 flights as an estimate in our pricing and flights when we actually booked in Feb for 11/2011 were actually about $150.00 more expensive per person than we thought they would be.

Originally Posted by cole379

Hi Ladies,

I was hoping you guys could offer your advice on the cheapest way to book Secrets Maroma Beach. We got a travel agent in Canada who looked up packages for us with the Airlines (hotel and flight included) and it looks like she found a great deal for a week stay. However, the price still came back to high for some of our guests (immediate family who we want to accommodate so they can attend) so right now Secrets is out. I am racking my brain trying to think of a way to get everything cheaper for them since I LOVE the resort. What is the best way you found to get a great deal for Secrets for your flights and accommodations for the wedding? Booking flight and hotel separate? Packages? It is hard because a year out things as it is still so pricey! Someone suggested they come for less than a week, but when we got a quote it was very close in price since we lost the â€˜week package dealâ€™ with the airline so it made no sense! Any advice?

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Have you tried CheapCaribbean.com? The pros are that the site offered significantly cheaper prices (resort + air package) than what we got with the travel agent, until a few days before the travel date, in which case it became around the same. The cons are that you don't get the "Book 5 rooms, get the 6th free" promotion if you book on the website. It's only with travel agents.

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We are scheduled to get married on the beach at 6pm. It is just us and 2 other couples. We have a cocktail hour afterwards. Hair appt for the bride is currently 3pm.

The question is pictures. Currently we are scheduled for pictures after the ceremony. The pros are obviously it is prime light for shooting, we don't have to be concerned about the dress getting dirty when we use the abandoned hacienda type place down the beach etc etc.

The cons are we will miss the cocktail hour with our guests, leaving them to entertain themselves, while waiting for us to return. They'll probably get hungry because we aren't eating until after the pictures...

We are considering getting pictures taken before the ceremony which means moving the hair and make up to an earlier time. What are your thoughts..?

Next, we are renting the sound system for an hour. We would like to have some music play while the guests are waiting for it to begin, and some music as she walks up to the podium area. But then if the ceremony takes 20 minutes this is 20 minutes we won't have towards the cocktail hr afterwards...any suggestions or insights?

June,

We just got married May 5. First you are gonna love it

some advice.....at the time i was there the Hacienda was blocked by a man who said no trespassing,,,so I needed a $20 bill to get in, plz carry some cash with you to the Hacienda....(but we went there often cuz its awesome, it just so happened that man was there on my wedding day, but no worries Cash will you get you everything in Mexico)

Second, do not worry about the guests waiting for you to get back, my guest waited also, its what happens at a wedding..Right?? I think they can entertain themselves for awhile!! Its your wedding remember, I am sure they wont mind at all!!

third, i think the music is a waste, in my opinion, it will be hard to hear it on the beach and Cecilia keeps you under a Palap under the bride is ready to walk anyway....just some advice from someone who has done it.

Hair at 3pm.............they did my hair fantastic, but it only took them 45 min and I have alot of hair, so consider sitting around for almost 2 hours with you hair done.........??

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i just returned from my wedding on may 16th. not gonna lie--i wasn't impressed!! it was just my fiance and i-no one else. i think the size of our wedding (essentially--no one) really effected the attention we got from our wedding coordinator (valeria). we LOVED our actual wedding and ceremony--but because of the beach, because of us, and because in the end we got married. the justice of the peace and out photographer were just amazing.

first--photography-Octavio Montes--AMAZING. his prices can not be beat and he is a true professional. he showed up 15 minutes early which was awesome (we only paid for 2 hours. again, just the 2 of us, no reception or anything) so any extra time was a super bonus. he caught some amazing shot of our ceremony and it was SUPER windy so most of the ceremony my hair was in my face but he was still able to catch some amazing moments. then after the ceremony we walked down the beach and the photos seriously look like they belong in a magazine. and--he stayed 20 minutes late. then-he met us at the airport the day we were leaving and gave us a CD of ALL the photos he took-close to 240!! we are very very pleased. we could not get into teh hacienda-there was a guard on duty but the photos are still amazing.

hair and make-up--eh. OK. i loved my hair. make-up i had to fix a bit. that may be that because i am picky though. i felt beautiful in the end so thats all that really matters. i was a bit annoyed though because my appointments were made for me a 2pm for a 5:30pm ceremony. OK-i figured 45 minutes or so to do my hair, and then 30 minutes for my make-up...so i should be done by 3:15 ish. fine. the spa has a "bridal suite" i can book were i can relax-sip champagne-read and just be for a bit until i need to get my dress on at 4:30ish (photography was suppose to arrive at 5pm-but i have read he shows up early which he did what was awesome--so i figured getting ready at 4:30 would be best). um..this bridal suite was a joke. they kept walking in on me check to see if i had left yet and it was just completely and totally akward. i went to the desk twice and checked if it was OK for me to be in there because random staff kept walking in and checking to see if i was still there. not checking on if i needed anything mind you--just walking in and wuickly apologizing, asking how much longer i would be there, and then leaving. it would have also been nice to have some food or drink available since i was there for 3 1/2 hours. when i asked for a glass of champagne it seemed like it was a huge inconvenience. the only food/drinks they had was the stuff laid out for the general spa users--pecans, walnuts and raisins. tea, coffee water. not really "bridal snacks". so that whole thing was sort of weird.

valeria-wedding coordinator--what a mess. let me state again--our wedding was amazing-BECAUSE OF US..its just laughable how BAD she was. she didn't do ANYTHING she said she would. perhaps it was because it was just the two of us so she thought she could slack off? who knows. anyways--she was great to email with prior to arriving. we had our meeting with her a couple of days after we arrived and everything went well...our ceremony was set for 5:30 on the beach. we did a legal ceremony. it was suppose to go like this:

4:30pm-she meets me in bridal suite to help me put on dress. remember--just me. no one is there to help me with my corset dress.

4:50-valeria goes to get my fiance and give him his flowers. she brings him down to the ceremony spot.

5pm (but i figured he would be there early)-photographer arrives and we take some photo of just me getting ready and around the spa.

5:15-valeria meets me with golf cart to take me to ceremony spot on beach

5:30 ceremony begins

After ceremony-cake and toast. my husband does not drink so we asked for champagne for me, ginger ale for him.

Not so bad-right? this is what happened--

4:30pm--hmm...no valeria. i'll wait a few more minutes before having someone call for her.

4:45--still no valeria. i'm in a pair of shorts and a button down shirt. AND the photographer just arrived. awesome. i'm not dressed.

4:45-5pm--the photographer and i fiddle around with some pics of my dress before i put it on...the bouquet and what not. still no valeria. i go to frint desk and ask to her her paged.

5:10pm--she arrives and is sort of pis*y, "you need me for something?".UUMM YES!! to put on my freakin' dress, remember?? now--it takes her 15 minutes to tie it up--15 minutes of which the photographer that i only have for 2 hours is just sitting outside the room because i have no clothes on. so that was wasted time and why i wanted her to get there earlier.

5:25-valeria says-"ok! lets go to the ceremony!" we walk outside and there is no golf cart. mind you--its 92 degress, i'm barefoot, and its about a 7 minutes walk to ceremony spot in the humidity. i ask about the golf cart because i don't want to be a sweaty mess by the time we get to the ceremony--she looks confused..and says she'll get it. i notice she also still has my fiance's flowers. i asked if she has seen him yet and she says no. remember--she was suppose to go get him at 4:50?? for all i know-john is still in the room waiting for her to show up.

5:35--golf cart arrives--we drive off. thank god john was smart enough to leave the room after valeria didnt show up.

5:40--CEREMONY BEGINS!! it was beautiful. all except the group of 10 naked drunk people swimming directly behind our ceremony being loud and screaming at me while i was walking down the aisle. seriously. i'm talking naked men and women jumping and screaming throughout our entire ceremony. wouldn't you think the wedding coordinator would have shooed them away?? and they were guests of the resort. in the moment--it made me laugh and they didn't get in any of our pictues--but SERIOUSLY???

6:10PM-ceremony concludes. the script they used was amazing. i cried, we exchanged vows, we kissed. i want to do the ceremony all over again because it was just so beautiful.

6:11-champagne popped!! they poor two glasses. i ask were johns ginger ale is and they say they don't have it. i asked if they could run to the bar so we could do a toast and they said it was too far away. seriously. so--no toast. we cut the cake (very yummy!!) and got some photos of that. they then said they would bring the cake and left over champagne up to our room. yea....we never saw that again and never received it. would have been nice to have our wedding cake for dessert on our wedding night-but i guess not.

we then went on to do a photoshoot and again--Octavio Montes--AMAZING. BOOK HIM!!!! you will not be disppaointed.

some other disappointing things: none of the beach chairs were moved from our be wedding ceremony location. john and the justice of the peace were scrambling to move the chairs right before i walked down the aisle. also--the "aisle" that they lay out and line with starfish completely blew away right before i came down. again--john and justice of the peace fixed it. there were other hotel staff and the wedding coordinator there...but no-thats cool. the groom will fix it. we also made an appointment with the preferred club for our complimentary champagne breakfast in bed that comes with the honeymoon package. we booked it for the day after the wedding. that never came either so we finally woke up and went to breakfast. also--we were there for a week after our ceremony and knew we needed a copy of our marriage certificate to take home. the night before we left we had to track down valeria throughout the day to let her know we were leaving and needed our things. she had us as leaving on a different day and would get us our things. awesome...a little discouraging though that had we not tracked her down--we would have not gotten our marriage certificate. another disappointing thing is i have read of brides that came home and had their jacuzzi filled and rose petals and what not...and was hoping we would get the same. nothing.

overall--LOVED our wedding because it was beautiful and in the end--we got married. secrets though did a HORRIBLE job.

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Thank you so much for the review. I can tell that you were unbiased as you had some good things to say too. I hope I get lucky like some of the other brides and grooms and have a better experience. We have 4 guests total plus us. I like your attitude about it being an amazing ceremony because of you and your husband. Great attitude to have!

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some advice.....at the time i was there the Hacienda was blocked by a man who said no trespassing,,,so I needed a $20 bill to get in, plz carry some cash with you to the Hacienda....(but we went there often cuz its awesome, it just so happened that man was there on my wedding day, but no worries Cash will you get you everything in Mexico)

Second, do not worry about the guests waiting for you to get back, my guest waited also, its what happens at a wedding..Right?? I think they can entertain themselves for awhile!! Its your wedding remember, I am sure they wont mind at all!!

third, i think the music is a waste, in my opinion, it will be hard to hear it on the beach and Cecilia keeps you under a Palap under the bride is ready to walk anyway....just some advice from someone who has done it.

Hair at 3pm.............they did my hair fantastic, but it only took them 45 min and I have alot of hair, so consider sitting around for almost 2 hours with you hair done.........??

Thanks for the information. We'll talk about the hair appt when we meet with Valeria on Monday. And we will take pictures after the ceremony, it just makes more sense. Guests will understand..

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First I wanted to say Congratulations on your wedding! I am glad that you had a beautiful ceremony and that it was so memorable for you and your new husband!

I am sorry to hear about the problems that you had with Secrets. That is horrible! It should not matter if you have 2 people or 200 people- your wedding should be just as important to them! It is to bad since other brides who have had small weddings have still posted that they had great service so it sucks that it happened to you! Out of curiosity, did you ever let anyone know at Secrets about your disappointment or what happened?

I have emailed a few times back and forth with Valeria (we are still in the process of booking our resort) and while she is always prompt with her reply, I have had more than one email answered with a bit of a â€˜snarkyâ€™ tone to them or where I feel she comes of as a bit rude. I purposely tried to email one of my questions to Cecilia, since I have heard only fabulous things about her, but Valeria always seems to reply. Does anyone know if they share the duties now or what the situation is with that? Can you request to work with Cecilia instead?

The naked people thing would make me really mad- I mean I see that in the moment you laugh it off (since I think most brides would-what other choice would you have really), but I agree, the wedding coordinator should have cleared the area for your wedding with the chairs and gone and said something to those guests.

Besides the problems with the wedding, did you like the resort itself?